Amaechi, Oshiomhole Shun Governors’ Meeting

Governor
Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and his Edo State counterpart, Comrade
Adams Oshiomhole on Sunday shunned the South-South/South-East Governors’
meeting held in Asaba, the Delta State capital.
During the summit the governors drummed up support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term ambition.
Although Amaechi, the Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, was
represented by his deputy, Tele Ikuru, Oshiomhole did not send any
representative to the meeting.
The absence of the Rivers State governor at the meeting further
confirmed speculation that he was no longer in the good books of
President Jonathan, thus deepening the political rivalry between the two
political giants in the South-South region.

Oshiomhole’s absence from the meeting might not be unconnected with
his romance with All Progressives Congress (APC), while his counterpart
in the fledging party and Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha who
showed up close to the end of the meeting, joined in the post-meeting
press briefing.
Others at the meeting were all the South-East governors including
Peter Obi (Anambra), Martin Elechi (Ebonyi), Theodore Orji (Abia) and
Sullivan Chime (Enugu).
The South-South governors present included the host, Emmanuel
Uduaghan (Delta), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa)
and Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom).
In their 12-point communiqué, the governors declared their support
for President Jonathan’s transformation agenda, adding that his focused
leadership and bold result-yielding transformation agenda deserves the
unwavering support of all Nigerians and friends of Nigeria alike.
Chairman of South-South Governors’ Forum, Liyel Imoke of Cross River
State who read part of the communiqué said the meeting was geared
towards economic and political integration of the two zones.

Kofi Annan: Africa Plundered By Secret Mining Deals

By BBC News

Tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers are
depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom, ex-UN chief Kofi
Annan has said.
Firms that shift profits to lower tax jurisdictions cost Africa
$38bn (£25bn) a year, says a report produced by a panel he heads.
"Africa loses twice as much money through these loopholes as it gets from donors," Mr Annan told the BBC.
It was like taking food off the tables of the poor, he said.
The Africa Progress Report is released every May - produced by a
panel of 10 prominent figures, including former Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo and Graca Machel, the wife of South African
ex-President Nelson Mandela.
'Highly opaque'
African countries needed to improve governance and the world's richest
nations should help introduce global rules on transparency and taxation,
Mr Annan said.
The report gave the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example,
where between 2010 and 2012 five under-priced mining concessions were
sold in "highly opaque and secretive deals".
Kofi Annan: "Transparency is a powerful tool"
This cost the country, which the charity Save the Children said earlier
this week was the world's worst place to be a mother, $1.3bn in
revenues.
This figure was equivalent to double DR Congo's health and education budgets combined, the report said.
DR Congo's mining minister disputed the findings, saying the country had "lost nothing".
"These assets were ceded in total transparency," Martin Kabwelulu told Reuters news agency.
The report added that many mineral-rich countries needed "urgently
to review the design of their tax regimes", which were designed to
attract foreign investment when commodity prices were low.
It quotes a review in Zambia which found that between 2005 and 2009,
500,000 copper mine workers were paying a higher rate of tax than major
multinational mining firms.
Africa loses more through what it calls "illicit outflows" than it gets in aid and foreign direct investment, it explains.
"We are not getting the revenues we deserve often because of either
corrupt practices, transfer pricing, tax evasion and all sorts of
activities that deprive us of our due," Mr Annan told the BBC's Newsday
programme.
"Transparency is a powerful tool," he said, adding that the report
was urging African leaders to put "accountability centre stage".
Mr Annan said African governments needed to insist that local
companies became involved in mining deals and manage them in "such a way
that it also creates employment".
"This Africa cannot do alone. The tax evasion, avoidance, secret
bank accounts are problems for the world… so we all need to work
together particularly the G8, as they meet next month, to work to ensure
we have a multilateral solution to this crisis," he said.
For richer nations "if a company avoids tax or transfers the money
to offshore account what they lose is revenues", Mr Annan said.
"Here on our continent, it affects the life of women and children -
in effect in some situations it is like taking food off the table for
the poor.

We may disguise poison by mingling it with wholesome food, but that
cannot change its nature. On the contrary, it is rendered more
dangerous.
This is exactly what Doyin Okupe, President Jonathan’s senior image
maker and propagandist attempts to do on the AJ Stream video interview
posted on SaharaReporters May 8.
The Al Jazeera interview featured Omoyele Sowore, publisher
SaharaReporters, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka in London, and Doyin Okupe
in Abuja.
The interview was conducted by Femi Oke with background story by Yvonne Ndege, Abuja based Al Jazeera West Africa correspondent.
The focus of the interview is Boko Haram terrorism: destruction of
lives, disruption of peace, and the distribution of fear and insecurity
in the homeland.
Okupe in a cadenced, monotonous, and repetitive nonsense find it
difficult to articulate Jonathan’s administration response to a
terrorist group that has constituted itself into a government by fiat.
Okupe painstakingly miserly calculates the human costs of Jonathan’s
inept handling of Boko Haram terrorists. “Trusting a fool to convey a
message,” the Book of Proverbs warns us, “is like cutting off one’s feet
or drinking a poison!”
The segment of the interview that I find amusing as well as
disturbing is the issue of corruption as a factor for the rise of Boko
Haram lunatics.
Oke asked his guests the factors that were responsible for the mayhem perpetrated and perpetuated by Boko Harams.
Soyinka says mammoth corruption, alienation, mismanagement and other
ideological reasons made the recruitment of ready and willing foot
soldiers for Boko Haram possible and available.
Sowore explains that like other problems that confront Nigeria, the
Jonathan administration had no strategy or solution to halt the
insurgency of Boko Harams.
Gesticulating with his hands as if he was cutting Okupe’s lies into pieces, Sowore begins his attack:
“Well, it’s a little bit of everything. It’s a cocktail of how
Nigeria has been run in the last 40 years, and the law enforcement
agencies have been involved in corruption over the years, they have
destroyed the agency of security, they have destroyed the country, they
have dehumanized its people.”
“You have every little problem in Nigeria escalating into a big
thing. When we didn’t have Boko Haram, we had Niger Delta militants. As a
matter of fact, a guy named Dokubo Asari threatened as we speak that if
Jonathan the president does not become president in 2015, they’ll
render Nigeria ungovernable.”
“Kidnappers in the eastern part of Nigeria have made it impossible
for the people to bury their dead. So, Nigeria is badly run. Corruption
has ruined Nigeria; it has dehumanized its people. “
“And these leaders are seen as people who don’t love their people,
they don’t love the country and that is why you see Dr. Okupe when he
was speaking he didn’t even know where this is coming from. He said
they’re using force, they’re using dialogue.”
“But even as we speak today the amnesty they organized has failed
because the army and elements in the military do not want the amnesty to
succeed because this is where they make their corruption money from.”
“The military and JTF in Niger Delta are involved in some form of
corruption called oil bunkering. They loved it. They love Nigeria the
way it is broken and that’s why citizens should gather together and face
up to our reality. We have a bad leadership in place that can’t get
anything done.”
Okupe who appears in outward splendor but with a stolen complacency,
in reality mocks the longings of his sin-sick soul – an evidence of
inward corruption – shot back:
“… Sometimes one cannot but be ashamed about certain pseudo elites of
Nigeria like Sowore and co castigate their own country and the
leadership of their own country.”
“Being tucked away far away in the United States in the comfort zone
it is a lot easier to just condemn various governments and various
administrations in your own country.”
Truth is always narrow, but error goes off in all directions. In his
comedy of lies, Okupe veers into many directions. Listen to him:
“Now I remember very well there was a time in Ghana when everything
went down to the most basic thing, poverty became very difficult to live
to the extent that people became displayed and they were moving away
from their homes in Ghana, they flooded all the West Africa coast
especially Nigeria.”
“What I’m trying to say is that in spite of ravaging poverty,
Ghanaians did not take up arms against their country. They agreed there
is a lot of youthful unemployment but that itself cannot explain the
degree of devastation that Nigeria is facing from Boko Haram.”
“People cannot pretend not to recognize the new phenomenon that’s going on in the world. It’s a global thing…”
“Well, we have a major problem in Nigeria with this insurgency but
the federal government in Nigeria is doing its utmost best to sort it
out and I believe the Nigerian military security agencies have the
capability to resolve this issue but because it’s an internal insurgency
there is a need to have limited attack.”
By the way, who needs Okupe’s counseling by comparison? That
Ghanaians didn’t “take up arms against their country in spite of
ravaging poverty,” means Nigerians should follow such example of
docility and imbecility?
Where was Okupe during the Arab Springs?
As if waiting for the big kill, after all we’re talking of a “lion,” Sowore pounced on his prey:
“I just want to say briefly to Dr. Okupe that I don’t like when they
make comparison between Nigeria and other countries that are broken.
They never made comparisons between Nigeria and other countries that are
working because Ghana did not make $500 billion from oil by the time it
had poverty.
“Ghana didn’t have the kind of land space, the rivers, the seas, the
very, very, very progressive and hardworking people that Nigeria had
when Ghana went through all of that.”
“We’re saying once again that it’s very convenient to accuse some of
us who are trying to make Nigeria work that we’re tucked away somewhere
abroad..”
“Dr. Doyin Okupe forgot that when the military was ravaging the land
we were student leaders who were fighting on ground when the likes of
Dr. Okupe were all running around doing deals with the military leaders
and selling away Nigeria. And that’s part of the problem.”
“I reported on Dr. Doyin Okupe himself. He has been involved in
corruption and that’s why Nigeria is the way it is today because he was
detained for several months for corruption and see where he is speaking
on behalf of Nigeria.”
“I see you laughing Dr. Okupe, jump in right quickly,” says Oke the moderator.
“… Because the guy that is talking to you is a huge joke, he’s a
liar, a man without reputation and people who collect money and say
anything to destroy people. You see him talking about corruption about
me. There have never been charges of corruption against me, in fact this
is what they do.”
Sowore goes on the prowl again:
“You were detained for corruption by the EFCC…” As Okupe tries to
free himself from Sowore’s jaws, he angrily emits a shrill outburst:
“Can you please shut up, you just disparate people and just mess them
up. Because you have online media that does not give you right to
destroy people’s rights and personalities.”
One of Okupe’s devices in defending all that is wrong with the
Jonathan administration is to combine with falsehood just enough truth
to give it plausibility.
Okupe calls Sowore and other critics of the Jonathan administration
“pseudo elites.” It is an irony that Okupe who is the most qualified
Nigerian with pseudo credentials, pseudo character, and pseudo
integrity, and a con artist employed at the expense of Nigerian tax
payers to trick and scam Nigerians.
Who should be ashamed?
Sowore or Okupe? Okupe is one of the vilest corrupt criminals often
the recipient of gifts and attentions as if he had attained an enviable
distinctions.
A man whose character and crimes cry for trial, Okupe is a shameless
propagandist who profits from fabricating and hawking lies and other
unpardonable deceitful wares.
Who is a liar?
Sowore or Okupe? The records show that each time Okupe opens his
mouth, he oozes out a bagful of lies. We don’t need to go into details.
We know the stock in trade of propagandists.
It is only in Nigeria that a person like Okupe with retarded morals
and ethics will call Sowore “a huge joke, a liar, a man without
reputation, who collects money and say anything to destroy people.”
Okupe knows he can increase his popularity as Jonathan’s spokesman by
being false to his creed, and appealing to hatreds that have nothing to
do with criticisms levied against him by Sowore.
Okupe’s only ultimate protection against his critics lies in
misguided hatreds and lies which form the nucleus of his propagandist
army. We see Okupe from time to time devoting our valuable resources to
his propagandist army to the fostering of unreason.
Since he took over as the Attack Lion-in-Chief of Aso Rock
Propagandist Army, he has demonstrated with passion and unreasoning
emotion that planting and fertilizing of lies can always be better done
by charlatans.
Nigeria has become a horde of robbers and assassins. Peace, rest, and
happiness have been banished from the nation. Courts of justice are
corrupt. Rulers are actuated by desire for gain and love of sensual
pleasure.
Intemperance has beclouded the faculties of the people in power so
that Satan has almost complete control of them. Jurists are perverted,
bribed, and deluded. Dishonesty of every sort is represented among those
who administer the laws.
Okupe in his warped wisdom excused Jonathan’s administration horrible
cruelty as a result of the criticisms, scrutiny, and relentless
pounding of the administration for corruption. He believes the
criticisms are based on sentiments.
Dr. Okupe, have you ever at any time in your life been detained by
the toothless and gum less EFCC? Yes or No? If the answer is yes, then
what part of the corruption allegations preferred against you by Sowore
don’t you understand?
Dr. Okupe, what happened to the N886 million road contracts awarded
to you? Where is the money? Where is the proof of the road constructed
by your phony construction company?
What part of your reputation if any, has Sowore damaged or disfigured?
The moral darkness espoused by you and your likes in the Jonathan’s
administration favor the spread of superstitions, oppression, and
increasing liberality in the revival of tyranny and corruption.
The infatuation of vice, the wanton taking of life, the terrible
increase of evil and iniquity of every order and degree, should arouse
all who fear God to inquire what can be done to stay the tide of evil in
our dear country.
Needless to remind Dr. Okupe, brilliance of style in propaganda is
not necessarily an index of pure, elevated thought. Through the mammoth
system of deception by Aso Rock under your direct supervision, you have
brought dishonor and wretchedness to Nigerians.
We cannot keep quiet while we watch the slow motion catastrophe in
our country unfolding before our eyes. We’ll continue to criticize,
scrutinize Jonathan’s administration filthy ideas and rich load of
corruption cases. History is on our side!
*** A wise person will desire no more than he or she may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.

The World Health Organization says it fears a
coronavirus that has killed at least 18 people is spreading from Europe
to the Middle East to Asia. The BBC says since last year there have been
33 confirmed cases with 18.

Slices of Raspberry Pi: Hacking the world's chea

The Raspberry Pi has been shortlisted for the London Design Museum's "Designs of the Year"
awards, with judges citing its affordability, power and accessibility
to children. An exhibition accompanying the awards is showing off some
of the creative uses of the hugely popular personal computer.

"Too many people simply have no idea what goes on inside
(computers). Inventions like the Raspberry Pi really help to change thatAlyssa Dayan, co-inventor of AirPi home weather surveillance station

The RPi has been shortlisted in London's Design Museum "Designs of the Year"
awards, with judges citing its affordability, power and accessibility
to children. As part of the exhibition accompanying the prizes, examples
of creative uses of RPi are on display at the museum until July 7.

They include a stylish,
personalized train departure board created by Gareth James of Hove, UK,
which provides the times of the next trains to Brighton.

"It's great to have a
dedicated piece of connected hardware that looks nice and sits and waits
to be useful," he said. "Whenever I'm thinking of leaving the house I
can easily check the next train time. Plus, it looks good on the wall...
No longer do I end up hanging around on the cold train platform."

Alyssa Dayan and Tom
Hartley created AirPi, an air quality and weather surveillance station
that uses RPi to take readings from an array of sensors, translating the
data into meaningful information and uploading it on to the internet.
The project cost only £55 on top of the cost of the RPi.

Dayan said the team had designed the device and set up a website
"not only to take our own air quality and weather readings but to
encourage and teach others to do the same -- and hopefully eventually
create a network of measurements coming in from across the world."

She said one of the key
benefits of RPi was the ease with which components could be added to the
board, which, combined with its cost, made it a great entry point to
introduce children to electronics.

"I think the
user-friendliness of computers has gotten to the extent that far too
many people simply have no idea what goes on inside them," she said.
"Inventions like the Raspberry Pi really help to change that."

A team from PA Consulting Group created a private cell phone network by connecting the RPi to a radio interface.

"We've shrunk a 30-foot
base station into a three-inch Raspberry Pi and created our own mobile
phone network," said PA's Frazer Bennett. "This proves what can be
achieved through low-cost off the shelf-systems."

In a more playful spirit, Tom Rees created a car out of Lego that is controlled using the console from a gaming system.

It is easier than ever to have your computer control your house,
move a robotic arm, turn a wheel, read the temperature, or speak your
weight. The sky is the limitRPi enthusiast Tom Rees

"It is easier than ever
(and less scary than ever) to have your computer control your house,
move a robotic arm, turn a wheel, read the temperature, or speak your
weight," he said. "The sky is the limit."

High-altitude ballooning
enthusiast David Akerman can attest to that. He's using RPi to track
and transmit photographs from his unmanned balloon flights, which have
ascended 40.5 kilometers (25.2 miles) into near space with a camera.

"The Pi has plenty of
memory and processor power, meaning that it can take several photographs
and then send the best image to transmit," he said.

"Balloon payloads swing
and rotate a lot and many of the images will be directly at the sun or
the black sky, and my software rejects all of those."

Akerman, whose RPi
invention isn't included in the design Museum exhibition, is tinkering
on improvements that will allow him to send better and larger images
from the flight, and is optimistic of besting his highest altitude on
the next flight. "I'm hoping to fly this in the next few weeks," he
said.

New Orleans

Seems the gun madness never stops and in the
latest casualty, several people, including a ten-year-old girl were
reportedly shot at a Mother’s Day Parade in New Orléans Sunday.
According to several news reports, including Reuters, police have
confirmed that...

Glorious colors in the desert: Darfur's fashionable women

This gave birth to The Darfur Sartorialist,
a project aiming to show to the world a different reality of this
remote part in Sudan, beyond the usual narrative of suffering and
violence.

"The news we usually get
about Darfur -- the war, the oppression, the camps -- exists but that is
not the only story," says Matos. "I hope the project can make people
question the reality we see."

CNN's Inside Africa spoke to Matos, who is now based in Kenya, about fashion in Darfur and his project's goals.

Pedro Matos

CNN: How you'd describe the way these women are dressed in a few words?

PM:
Colorful -- amidst these deserted landscapes, people dress in incredible
colors; unique -- it's extremely difficult to find two women with the
same clothes; proud -- there is a pride in the dressing which goes a bit
against to what I was expecting to be a conservative way of dressing;
fashionable -- a lot of the clothing is traditionally Sudanese but some
is also influenced by the Middle East.

The traditional Sudanese
clothing is the toub -- many meters of cloth that's wrapped around the
body and head. Because it often falls off, they have to wear something
underneath so that the skin doesn't get exposed. Those combinations are
often unique; their undergarment would often be a patterned shirt and
trousers, and with the toub, combinations are extremely varied.

The Darfur Sartorialist.

PEDRO MATOS

But on top of that, you
have all the influence that comes from the Sudanese diaspora, the soap
operas and all the films from the Middle East where women often dress a
bit more Westernized; they have dresses, trousers, denim jackets and
skirts, so you have a combination of all these things and it's extremely
difficult to find two women dressed the same.

The variety is something
that surprised me; in the West we often have these fashionable dark
colors and because there are all these franchise stores, you get to see
people dressed pretty much in the same way. But in Sudan, they're so
varied.

CNN: How easy was it taking pictures? Were there any security concerns?

PM:
Sudan has been in the spotlight for human rights issues for a long time,
so they're extremely suspicious of foreigners going around taking
photos. But after working side by side for so long with the security
services, they eventually ended up trusting me and I was allowed to take
pictures.

Africa's feathered fashion export

Traditional dress of Senegal

CNN: Did women want to be photographed?

PM:
That is quite interesting, because Sudan is a society where women are
expected to behave conservatively and refuse photographs. So, when I'd
take their pictures, they would often refuse if they don't know me. But
if I'm taking [pictures] of children, then the women would say, "OK, you
can take photographs of us too." My colleagues and the IDPs didn't have
a problem because they knew me; actually, they were quite happy and
honored and flattered that a foreigner would be so interested in their
clothing.

PM:
Most people in the West are extremely surprised and most people in Sudan
are quite happy that someone is covering Sudan in such way, with many
smiles, and proud, fashionable people.

But what I'm mostly
interested about is to have people in the West -- those who know very
little about Darfur, other than the stories of war and kidnapping --
understand that beyond the society we see in the news, it feels
perfectly normal and conceivable that alongside war and oppression there
are people who live their own lives and have aspirations which are not
that different from ours

Latest African gold rush

International hotel operators are
sidestepping infrastructure and bureaucratic hurdles to expanding their
footprint across Africa.

Major international hotel chains are
increasingly rolling out thousands of new rooms in Africa's business
hotspots, keen to expand their footprint on the continent's burgeoning
economies.

From Lagos and Kigali to
Nairobi and Johannesburg, the world's best known hoteliers are targeting
Africa's growing urban centers to benefit from a rising number of
business travelers and a huge undersupply in available rooms.

"There's a growing demand
in those capital cities because they are the centers of business, of
government and of commerce -- all of which have hospitality needs," says
Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior vice president of development for Hilton
Worldwide, Europe and Africa.

"We have a very bullish
feel for these markets and we are very excited about the opportunity
Africa presents," he adds. "I think that for the next 20 years we are
going to have our hands full with opportunity."

For the next 20 years we are going to have our hands full with opportunity.Patrick Fitzgibbon, Hilton

'World woken up to Africa'

Last month, the International Monetary Fund said
that sub-Saharan Africa's economy is expected to expand by 5.6% in 2013
and 6.1% next year, outpacing the global average of 3.3% and 4% in
accordance.

Andrew McLachlan, Carlson
Rezidor Vice President for Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, says it is
Africa's potential to offset the sluggishness in more developed markets
that's appealing to global players.

"What has really happened
is that post the economic crash in 2008/2009, the rest of the world has
really woken up to Africa," says McLachlan.

"There's been such good
news coming out of Africa from a GDP growth point of view; better
telecommunications; improved security; political stability; and improved
airlift," he adds. "It's really become a sort of new scramble back into
Africa."

And whilst both
international and intra-regional travel are on the up, partly thanks to
Africa's natural resources boom, a shortage of rooms is prompting
hoteliers to turn their attention to a continent ignored for decades.

Business travel

According to a recent survey
by Lagos-based consultancy W Hospitality Group, some 40,000 new rooms
in 207 hotels are planned in the continent's under-served cities, up
almost one third compared to 2011.

Hilton, which operates
nearly 11,000 rooms in 37 properties in Africa, says it has some 5,200
rooms and 17 hotels in the pipeline across the continent. Carlson
Rezidor, which recently opened a Radisson Blu in Port Harcourt, its
eighth hotel in Nigeria and 49th in the continent, is targeting 12 new
hotel deals this year. French group Accor, owner of the Novotel and Ibis
brands, has some 5,000 rooms in the pipeline, according to the W
Hospitality survey.

"The vast majority of
those hotels are business-oriented," explains Trevor Ward, managing
director of W Hospitality. "If you look at where those hotel chains are
primarily going, it's the capital cities or the major commercial cities
of Africa where the business traveler is going," he adds.

What's driving us is genuine trade and business in the continent.Ewan Cameron, Lonrho

Yet, it's not only the
brands at the higher ends of the market that are keen to tap Africa's
promise. In late March, pan-African conglomerate Lonrho teamed up with
Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup to open their first Africa-based low
budget hotel in Johannesburg's central business district.

Ewan Cameron, chief
executive of Lonrho Hotels, says the company plans to roll out 50
easyHotel units by 2016 in the continent's high-growth destinations to
cater to the needs of African business travelers.

"What's driving us is
genuine trade and business in the continent," explains Cameron. "If
you're going to a city center like Nairobi, we want to be where the taxi
rank is; where the market is -- unlike the competition who want to be,
if you like, in the beautiful parts of the city," he adds. "We will
sacrifice this for economic drivers -- we want the trade and we want to
be where you want to do business."

'Real challenges'

Still, international
hoteliers have to overcome several infrastructure and logistics
obstacles in their bid to plant their flags across the continent.

Cameron says hotels
often have to be self-sustained, depending on satellite connectivity for
fast wi-fi and generators for back up power, as well as having to
provide their own clean water. "These are real challenges for us today,"
he says.

Analysts also say that
companies can face big delays during the construction process due to
poor workmanship and a shortage of professional skills. Bureaucracy and
corruption can often be a problem too, especially when it comes to
importing materials that are not available locally.

Quick returns

Yet, despite these
hurdles, hotel groups remain very positive about their future in Africa
as the continued rise in demand and undersupply in hotel rooms offer
strong occupancy rates and high profitability margins in short periods
of time.

"These challenges we
face, we quickly forget about them the day the hotel opens," says
McLachlan. "Normally, we would say the hotel takes 1,000 days from the
day it opens to stabilize but in a lot of these African markets it can
take a couple of months to stabilize because of the high demand for
hotels."

Fitzgibbon agrees. "It's
fascinating when you look at the change and opportunity on the
continent and just what it represents," he says

For a slice of the Sahara, there's the desert town of Merzouga, near the impressive Erg Chebbi sand dunes, accessible via camel treks.

Active types can hike between Berber villages in the High Atlas or head to the blue-hued Andalusian town of Chefchaouen to explore the Rif Mountains.

Beach bums will love laid-back Essaouira and Sidi Ifni on the Atlantic coast, while surfers often head south to Taghazout.

For quiet contemplation, Morocco's holiest town, Moulay Idriss, is hard to beat. Plus, you'll have the nearby Roman ruins of Volubilis pretty much to yourself.

If you don't like cumin, you may starve

Cumin is one of the main
spices used in Moroccan cooking. This pungent powder is used to flavor
everything from tagines to mechoui (slow-roasted lamb).

Cumin is used as a
condiment on most Moroccan tables, along with salt and chili. It's also a
popular natural remedy for diarrhea.

"Cumin has
anti-parasitical properties, so if you've got an upset tummy, a spoonful
of cumin knocked back with water will help," said food guide Gail
Leonard with Plan-It Fez.

Trains are cheap, comfortable and reliable

First class train travel in Morocco is affordable and worth it. Just be prepared to share your food.

Train company ONCF operates one of the best train networks in Africa, making it the easiest way to travel between cities.

It's worth paying extra for first class, which comes with a reserved seat and A/C.

First class carriages
have six-seat compartments or open-plan seating. Stock up on snacks, or
buy them onboard, as it's customary to share food.

When it comes to
traveling to smaller towns and villages, buses and grand taxis, usually
old Mercedes sedans that can seat six (at a squash), are best.

Couscous is served on Fridays

You'll see it on every restaurant menu, but traditionally, couscous is served on Fridays, when families gather after prayers.

This is because the proper (not packet) stuff takes a long time to prepare.

Coarse semolina is
hand-rolled into small granules to be steamed and fluffed three times.
It's pale in color, deliciously creamy and served with vegetables and/or
meat or fish.

Bread is the staple carb and is served with every meal, except couscous.

It's baked in communal
wood-fired ovens, one of five amenities found in every neighborhood (the
others being a hammam, or bathhouse; a drinking fountain; a mosque and a
preschool).

Riad rooftops rock

The traditional Moroccan house (riad) is built around a central courtyard with windows facing inwards for privacy.

They're decked out with elaborate zellij, stucco and painted cedar and are easily the most atmospheric places to stay.

While Moroccans tend to use their rooftops as clotheslines, a riad roof terrace is the place to be come sunset.

When you hear 'balak!' watch out

The narrow streets of Morocco's souks are filled with hagglers, hustlers, mule-drivers and motor scooters.

Morocco's souks are not for the faint-hearted. The narrow streets teem with hagglers, hustlers, mule-drivers and motor scooters.

Rule No. 1 is to step aside when you hear "Balak!" It means there's a heavily laden handcart or mule bearing down on you.

You'll inevitably get lost, as maps don't usually include the warren of small alleys that make up the medina.

A guide can help you get
your bearings and fend off touts, but be aware that anything you buy
will have his commission built in to the price.

Alternatively, taking snaps of landmarks with your smartphone can help you find your way back to your accommodation.

It's not weird to be bathed by a stranger

There are plenty of posh hotel hammams, but nothing beats a visit to a no-frills public bathhouse.

Spotting the entrance
can be tricky, as most signs are written in Arabic. Look for a shop
selling toiletries or a mosque, as these are usually nearby.

It's advisable to stock
up on black olive oil soap, ghassoul (clay used as hair conditioner), a
kiis (exfoliating glove) and a mat to sit on. Visitors need to take
their own towels, comb and flip-flops.

Women strip to their
knickers (no bra), and men wear underpants. Then you'll be steamed,
scrubbed and pummeled until you're squeaky clean.

Nigeria's new national ID card which will function both as a national ID and as a bank card.
Nigerian government has announced a proposed Mastercard-branded National Identity smart cards with electronic payment capability, the Guardian reported.
The issuance will start within the next three months under the auspices of the National Identity Management Commission and will cover citizens aged 16 and above.Pensioners will
be the first group to pilot the new scheme. The plan will create the
largest rollout of an electronic payment solution of its kind at once,
to an unbanked population.
Only 30 per cent of an estimated 160m
Nigerians have access to financial services and with these cards, the
other 70 per cent will be brought into formal financial system.
The country has focused on improving access, the usage and quality of financial services in the program. Personal data, including biometric data will remain with the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Kenya,
under the Jubilee Manifesto, has proposed to establish a universal
single registration system activated at birth which will streamline
birth registration, National ID registration, voter registration, NHIF,
NSSF, and any other tax or commercial related registration. Whereas not
conceptualized to including payments, it seems likely to be able to
include the service

A photo of man bearing a striking
resemblance to Jay-Z has surfaced, and if it wasn't for the fact that it
was taken in 1939, you'd swear it was JayZ himself.
The
photo is “Harlem Loiterers” by the street photographer Sid Grossman and
it was stumbled across recently by a curator at the New York Public
Library’s Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture.

And
the New York Public Library swears, the old photo of the guy who looks
scarily like Jay-Z really is an unretouched, un-Photoshopped image from
1939.

Since the photo hit the internet, different conspiracy, theories bordering on Jay-Z re-incarnating has spread on the internet.

The man in the picture is staring down the camera lens with a distinct
sense of attitude and intent. Best of all, the man from the past has
exactly the same poise and swagger as our very own present day JayZ.
On account of Jay-Z being 43 years old, the man in the photo is of course not him. Or what do you think?